7/24/2017
By Ivan Pereira
A fallen Brooklyn soldier will finally be brought home, nearly 74 years after he gave his life for his country.
The U.S. Department of Defense’s POW/MIA Accounting Agency said Monday it has identified the remains of Pvt. Joseph C. Carbone who was killed during a battle in the Pacific Theater. Carbone was a Brooklyn native and part of the 2nd Marine Division, which landed against stiff Japanese resistance on the small island of Betio in the Tarawa Atoll of the Gilbert Islands, on Nov. 20, 1943.
He died during the first day of the three-day battle, according to the Department of Defense. Although Allied forces defeated the Axis troops, nearly 1,000 Marines and sailors were killed and more than 2,000 were wounded.
The dead were buried in temporary cemeteries on the island, but their locations and identities weren’t recorded.
In 2008, the nonprofit group History Flight conducted an extensive research expedition of the island and discovered five burial sites containing the remains of the battle’s fallen Marines and sailors.
A year later, the Department of Defense ordered the remains to be recovered and identified.
Carbone’s interment services are pending. A rosette will be placed at the Walls of the Missing at the American Battle Monuments Commission Honolulu site, according to the Department of Defense.
Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams said he was relieved to hear that one of the borough’s hero’s would receive their final respects.
“This news helps to fill a hole in our collective hearts, one that we may not recognize every day but one that aches for the thousands of Brooklynites who died in World War II,” he said in a statement.
